Collection Spotlight: The Hudson River School
The Hudson River School was a movement in American art embraced by landscape painters who explored Romantic themes of the wild beauty of nature from the 1830s to the 1880s.
Although they focused primarily on Hudson River Valley vistas, they also depicted landscapes from throughout the United States. English émigré Thomas Cole was the founder and influential leader of this loosely affiliated group of painters, which included Asher B. Durand, Jasper F. Cropsey, Albert Bierstadt, and Cole’s only student, Frederic E. Church, among others. Through their paintings and published prints, the Hudson River School artists forged an aesthetic that promoted the bucolic American landscape and its inevitable settlement reaching to the western frontier and even the Andes of South America.
This exhibition features works from the Museum’s collection, including paintings by Cropsey and Durand, and prints by Cole, Church, and Frances Flora Bond Palmer. They are complemented by paintings on loan, including Robert Seldon Duncanson’s Carp River, Lake Superior, 1850, and May Wheelock’s On the Esopus Creek, 1878.
The artists of the Hudson River School had a lasting impact not only on American art but also on the American landscape. For instance, their paintings inspired the United States government to create the first national parks in 1872. In the twentieth century, many preservationists were inspired by their scenes of nature, and interest in the Hudson River School escalated. More recently, scholars are examining the paintings with a more nuanced reading of how art, culture, and political history are intertwined, as we contend with environmental crises and reckon with our history of land ownership.
This exhibition is supported in part by Greg and Fay Wyatt.
Exhibitions are made possible by assistance provided by the County of Westchester.
Collection Spotlight: The Hudson River School is complemented by The Bierstadt Brothers: Painting and Photography, which features paintings by Hudson River School artist Albert Bierstadt.
Featured Artists
Currently on view: Albert Bierstadt • Karl Bodmer • Thomas Cole • Samuel Colman • Jasper Francis Cropsey • Robert Seldon Duncanson • Asher Brown Durand • Hermann Fuechsel • Sanford Robinson Gifford • William Hart • John Frederick Kensett • Fitz Henry Lane • Levi Wells Prentice • Francis Augustus Silva • James Smillie • Abbie Thurber •
Previously on view: William James Bennett • Frederic Edwin Church • Sarah E. Harvey • Samuel Valentine Hunt • George Inness • Frances Flora Bond Palmer • May Wheelock
Selected objects
Asher Brown Durand (American, 1796–1886), after William James Bennett (American, born England, 1787–1844). The Falls of the Sawkill, 1830. Steel engraving. Published in The New-York Mirror, “The American Landscape.” Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of the Estate of H. Armour Smith, 1961 (61.13.154).
Engraved and printed by Fenner, Sears & Co., London, after Thomas Cole (American, born England, 1801–1848). Published by L.T. Hinton & Simpkin & Marshall. Lake George, 1831. Engraving, hand-colored. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Nicholas A. Robinson, 2021 (2021.21.12).
James Smillie (American, born Scotland, 1807–1885), engraved after Thomas Cole (American, born England, 1801–1848). The Voyage of Life: Youth, 1849. Engraving. Collection of the Hudson River Museum (INV.10604).
Fitz Henry Lane (American, 1804–1865). Gloucester, Stage Fort Beach, 1849. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Shelley and Felice Bergman, 2021 (2021.14.1). Photo by Steven Paneccasio.
Robert Seldon Duncanson (American, 1821–1872). Carp River, Lake Superior, 1850. Oil on board. Collection of David and Laura Grey.
Asher B. Durand (American, 1796–1886). Landscape, ca. 1855–60. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Mrs. George J. Stengel, by exchange, 2000 (2000.01).
Jasper Francis Cropsey (American, 1823–1900). Summer, 1855. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Greg and Fay Wyatt, 2021 (2021.15.1). Photo by Steven Paneccasio.
Samuel Valentine Hunt (American, born England, 1803–1893), after Frederick Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900). A Morning in the Tropics, ca. 1860. Steel-plate engraving. Collection of the Hudson River Museum (73.0.226.8).
Frances Flora Bond Palmer (American, born England, 1812–1876). The Catskill Mountains: From the Eastern Shore of the Hudson, 1860. Published by Currier & Ives, New York. Hand-colored lithograph. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Mrs. George J. Stengel, by exchange, 2016 (2016.09).
Jasper Francis Cropsey (American, 1823–1900). Autumn on the Susquehanna, 1861. Oil on canvas. Collection of Shelley and Felice Bergman. Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
Samuel Valentine Hunt (American, born England, 1803–1893), after John Frederick Kensett (American, 1816–1872). Noon on the Sea Shore, an art supplement for Appleton’s Journal, 1863. Steel-plate engraving. Collection of the Hudson River Museum (73.0.227.9).
Samuel Colman (American, 1832–1920). Looking North from Ossining, New York, 1867. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of the Estate of Sarah Williams, 1944 (44.100a).
Francis Augustus Silva (American, 1835–1886). October on the Hudson, ca. 1873. Oil on canvas. Collection of Shelley and Felice Bergman.
Hermann Fuechsel (American, born Germany, 1833–1915). Hudson River Scene, 1875. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Waldo, 1971 (71.29.3).
May Wheelock (American, 1841–1938). On the Esopus Creek, 1878. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Hawthorne Fine Art, New York.
George Inness (American, 1825–1894). In the Woods, early 1880s. Oil on board. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Martucci, 1991 (91.1.1). Photo by Steven Paneccasio.
Jasper Francis Cropsey (American, 1823–1900). View at Hastings-on-Hudson, ca. 1895–1897. Oil on canvas. Lent by Hastings-on-Hudson Union Free School District, 1971 (L71.25).
